Big Blue View
Does that surprise you? It probably shouldn’t
The New York Giants’ Super Bowl-winning teams of the 2000s are akin to the late, great comedian, Rodney Dangerfield. They don’t get any respect. At least, not championship-caliber respect.
In a post ranking the best 25 NFL teams of the 2000s, neither of the Eli Manning-led teams that pulled off historic upsets of the New England Patriots made the cut.
Bill Barnwell of ESPN actually left 12 of the 25 Super Bowl champions off his top 25 list. He said:
Obviously, winning pro football’s biggest prize is a valuable item to put on a résumé — I weighted things disproportionately in favor of teams that took home the Lombardi Trophy — but I’m considering what those teams did over the entire season, not just how their campaign ended.
Here is what Barnwell said about the 2007 Giants, who beat the previously 18-0 New England Patriots, the No. 1 team on Barnwell’s list:
The 2007 Giants produced what might have been the most memorable victory of the Super Bowl era, controlling the vaunted Patriots offense and coming up with David Tyree’s famous helmet catch to set up a championship-winning touchdown. Making a run through the Buccaneers, Cowboys and Packers on the NFC side of the bracket, the Giants waylaid history.
Of course, they also lost to those same Patriots during the regular season, where they were also swept by the Cowboys and lost to the Packers. They had a minus-nine turnover differential during the regular season, and while they played the Pats close in the last week, that followed an eight-game stretch in which Eli Manning completed 51.1% of his passes and turned the ball over twice as often (14 times) as he produced touchdowns (seven, with six through the air.) This team had a great defensive line, and it hit a new stride when it leaned into its young talent during the postseason, but one snap before the helmet catch, a would-be interception bounced off Asante Samuel’s hands. If he had caught that pass, nobody would even pretend this is a debate. The Giants deserve all the credit in the world for what they accomplished, but I wouldn’t like their chances against these teams over another 17-game season.
Actually, it is hard to argue with Barnwell on this one. The Giants were a second-place wild-card team no one expected to put together such a historic run. Eli Manning was a quarterback few truly believed in until he did what he did during that playoff run and made them believe.
Here is what Barnwell said about the 2011 team that again defeated New England:
The good news is that no fans will be mad at me for also leaving the 2011 Giants out of the top 25. Right? The 2011 version was actually outscored during the regular season, albeit while playing a tough schedule. The Giants were 7-7 in December and Manning was being unfavorably compared to fellow New...
